Articles
Catholic Church in Meghalaya: Foundation and Growth
Opinion | Articles | David R. Syiemlieh | 14-Dec-2020
Catholics missionaries were the first among the Christian Missions to have entered the North East region. Their attention through the 18th and early 19th centuries was the pastoral care of three Portuguese settlements of Rangamati, located on the easternmost corner of the Mughal empire; Bondashill on the river Barak in Cachar and Marianmagar close to Agartala in Tripura. However Catholics were amongst the last of the missionary bodies to establish mission stations. In large part the reason for this delay was the indecision of the church authorities as to which of its foreign missions should be entrusted the task of the evangelisation of the region. The consequences of this delay and indecision affected in no small measure the Catholic position in relation to a fairly wide coverage of Protestant missions in the hills and plains of the region.
The efforts at evangelization by the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) founded in 1850 to undertake missionary activities in foreign countries then based in India at Krishnagar since 1855 deputed Fr. Jacopo Broy in 1872 to Assam as resident missionary where he remained till 1890. Fr. Broy was the lone Catholic priest in the Assam mission. He ministered to the small Catholic community in Shillong between 1872-1890 whenever he visited the town. He resided in ‘Hope Villa,’ located close to Pinemount School. The Holy Cross Congregation at Dacca wanted to have the Khasi Hills and Assam under their jurisdiction; however, their missionaries were able only to pay occasional pastoral visits to Shillong, Guwahati and Dibrugarh.
On 13th December, 1889 Pope Leo XIII established the Prefecture Apostolic of Assam, Bhutan and Manipur, comprising the Brahmaputra valley, Surma valley (Cachar and Sylhet districts), and the Hill Districts, with the exception of the Lushai hills which later was to become part of the Dhaka Vicariate. The new Prefecture was entrusted to the Catholic Teaching Society, the Society of Divine Saviour (Salvatorians SDS) which had been founded in Rome in December 1881 by Fr. J.B. Jordan. When it was decided that the Salvatorians, the newly founded German mission would commence work in the North East it was to Shillong where they first came as it was the provincial capital and outside the ‘comity agreement’ of the Protestant missions.
The first group of Salvatorian missionaries led by Fr. Otto Hopfenmuller after their arrival in the Assam mission were periodically joined by teams of priests, brothers and sisters. Between 1890 and 1897, the Salvatorians were able to spare nineteen missionaries for their Assam mission. By 1897, the Salvatorians had established mission stations at Shillong (1890), Raliang (1892), Shella (1893) Laitkynsew (1897), Cherrapunjee (1897) and took over the care of the earlier established missions at Gauhati and Bondashill (1894). Despite many hurdles the Salvatorians were able within a short span of time to effectively apply their methods of evangelization including learning the local languages, preaching, translating prayers, catechisms and printing portions of the Bible and monthly newsletter - U Nongialam Katholik. The acquisition of Hopkinson’s Wood (where the Don bosco, Cathedral and loreto convent are presently located) then had a settling effect. What could have been a much faster growth of the mission and despite the commitment, were continued opposition on account of prevailing beliefs, superstitions, sacrifices and taboos, in convincing the people to embrace Christianity, the devastation after the earthquake of 12 June 1897, the immediate problems included dearth of missionaries, the return of several missionaries to their homeland on account of ill health - following the fact that the region was infested with various diseases. Constant change of personnel, paucity of men and lack of sufficient means retarded both work and growth.
The Salvatorians maintained their Assam mission till 1915 when they were withdrawn because of their nationality. Belgian Jesuits from Calcutta then came for a period of time to take over the mission including churches at Shillong, Sohra, and Raliang. The Salesians of Don Bosco arrived in 1922. They could have arrived in the Assam mission earlier but for want of personnel. Five requests were made by Rome to the Congregation to take over the mission. The Congregation accepted the Assam mission, the “new Patagonia” in 1921. Fr. Louis Mathias with his inspiring motto “Dare and Hope” and his team of Salesian Fathers and Brothers arrived Shillong on 13 January 1922. (The Salesians will observe the centenary of their mission in the region in early 2022.) Soon followed the arrival of Salesian Sisters in Guwahati on 8 December 1923. In October that year a second ‘expedition’ of missionaries arrived. Almost regularly thereafter Salesians from across Europe sailed out to India to support the missions in Assam, Bengal and south India. Having settled in Fr. Louis Mathias assigned portfolios to his confreres to the districts as they were then termed, of Shillong, Laitkynsew/Cherra, Gauhati/Dibrugarh, Badarpur/Sylhet and the hill station of Haflong where the last remaining Belgian Jesuit, Fr. Adrian Le Tellier was chaplain of St. Agnes Convent. Meanwhile a positive note on the promise of mission growth came with the appointment from Rome in December 1922 of Fr. Louis Mathias as Prefect Apostolic of Assam.
1934 was a special year for the Salesians in all parts of the world, even more so for those of Assam, as it was in that year that Don Bosco was canonized and Shillong raised to the rank of a diocese with Mgr. Louis Mathias as it’s first Bishop. Bishop Louis Mathias was Bishop of Shillong for a year. Following his appointment as Bishop of Madras, Bishop Stephen Ferrando, then Bishop at Krishnagar was enthroned as Shillong’s second Bishop. Amidst the celebration of the canonization and the resultant prayers to the Saint, the growth of the Prefecture justified its erection into that of a Diocese. Statistics of the larger Assam mission in 1922 provide that there were 5844 Catholics, 6 priests, 5 Salesian Brothers, 48 catechists, 20 chapels, among other Catholic institutions. Records of 1933 indicate growth over a number of activities and personnel with 24459 Catholics, 28 priests, 58 clerics, 13 Salesian Brothers, 273 catechists, 24 churches, 204 chapels, 3 technical schools, a college and 3 high schools.
In 1922 the Salesians started Don Bosco Technical School, Shillong, offering the youth variety of technical and professional courses. Three Catholic congregations set up degree colleges in Shillong; St. Edmund’s College in 1923 by the Irish Christian Brothers, St. Anthony’s College in 1934 by the Salesians of Don Bosco and St. Mary’s College in 1937 by the RNDM. All three colleges were initially affiliated to the University of Calcutta. Their impact on higher education in the region is immense. Their alma mater is to be found in the entire region. We turn our attention to the Garo Hills. The Catholic Church first had adherents among the Garos of Mymensingh district in present day Bangladesh. With the Baptist mission already actively engaged in the Garo hills, the policy under colonial rule discouraging more than one mission in any of the tribal inhabited hill districts affected the entry of the Catholic mission into these hills. From their missions in Kamrup contact was made with Garos in the hills. Father Rudolf Fontaine, a Salvatorian priest then residing in Guwahati was the first Catholic priest to visit Garo hills in 1913. Catholic missionaries visited the Garos in 1932 and established the first church at Chotjolja village that same year. Peter Shem Momin the first convert, was instrumental as its catechist in the initial work of the Catholic church among the Garos. In 1931, Msgr. Louis Mathias, then Prefect Apostolic of Assam, appointed Fathers Pianazzi and Rocca to work among the Garos. As they were not allowed by the Government to reside in Garo Hills, they took up residence at Dhubri in 1932. In 1933, the Fathers received permission to stay in Garo Hills and thus opened the first Catholic mission at Tura. From then on Salesians of Don Bosco, diocesan priest and a number of congregations have worked tirelessly to spread the Gospel and set up schools and institutions in the Garo Hills. Mission centres/parishes were later established at Damra, Baghmara , Dalu, Rongjeng, Selsella, Tikrikilla and Resubelpara.
(The Author is former Chairman of the UPSC. He could be reached on syimlieh@hotmail.com )
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